5 Reasons Democrats Should Push for ObamaCare's Repeal

Repeal: Democrats might think the Frankenstein's monster they've created with ObamaCare can be tamed before the next election by applying a few bandages and stitches. If so, they are badly misinformed.

On CNN last week, DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz told Candy Crowley that "Democratic candidates will be able to run on ObamaCare as an advantage leading into the 2014 election."

It reminds us of what David Axelrod claimed back in March 2010, when he told Crowley that Democrats would be rewarded in November for enacting ObamaCare.

Axelrod was profoundly wrong. Voters severely punished Democrats for ObamaCare, handing control of the House — and nearly the Senate — to the GOP.

And now, so is Wasserman Schultz. In fact, if Democrats were smart, they'd start pushing to repeal ObamaCare now and replace it with reforms that actually work. Among the reasons:

Things will only get worse.

Democrats might think that once the website is fixed, all will be well. But the truth is that the problems facing ObamaCare will expand next year.

First, there will be waves of additional cancellations next fall, as businesses that renewed their health plans early this year — to put off the ObamaCare hit — find that their plans can't be renewed and that ObamaCare-approved plans cost far more.

This will affect up to 100 million workers, right before the election. Plus, if any individuals are allowed to keep their existing plans this year, they'll face the same cancellation problem next fall.

Then there will be another round of rate shocks. There's every indication that young and healthy people won't buy overpriced ObamaCare insurance this year, which means higher rates next year just before voters go to the polls.

It's also likely that more companies will pull out of the exchanges after taking a bath this year, causing still more disruption.

A senior citizen revolt is brewing. ObamaCare relies heavily on cuts to Medicare to "pay for" the new subsidies, and many of those cuts target payments to the privately run Medicare Advantage plans.

These are hugely popular with seniors these days, but the cuts will force millions to switch plans, lose access to doctors they like, or rejoin the balky government-run program. If seniors make the connection, they will only have Democrats to blame.

Unions will probably back repeal. Every major union group has viciously attacked ObamaCare, claiming it will severely harm workers, and some have called for its outright repeal. At the very least, they aren't likely to fight to protect a law they've all come to hate.

Repeal: Democrats might think the Frankenstein's monster they've created with ObamaCare can be tamed before the next election by applying a few bandages and stitches. If so, they are badly misinformed.

On CNN last week, DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz told Candy Crowley that "Democratic candidates will be able to run on ObamaCare as an advantage leading into the 2014 election."

It reminds us of what David Axelrod claimed back in March 2010, when he told Crowley that Democrats would be rewarded in November for enacting ObamaCare.

Axelrod was profoundly wrong. Voters severely punished Democrats for ObamaCare, handing control of the House — and nearly the Senate — to the GOP.

And now, so is Wasserman Schultz. In fact, if Democrats were smart, they'd start pushing to repeal ObamaCare now and replace it with reforms that actually work. Among the reasons:

Things will only get worse.

Democrats might think that once the website is fixed, all will be well. But the truth is that the problems facing ObamaCare will expand next year.

First, there will be waves of additional cancellations next fall, as businesses that renewed their health plans early this year — to put off the ObamaCare hit — find that their plans can't be renewed and that ObamaCare-approved plans cost far more.

This will affect up to 100 million workers, right before the election. Plus, if any individuals are allowed to keep their existing plans this year, they'll face the same cancellation problem next fall.

Then there will be another round of rate shocks. There's every indication that young and healthy people won't buy overpriced ObamaCare insurance this year, which means higher rates next year just before voters go to the polls.

It's also likely that more companies will pull out of the exchanges after taking a bath this year, causing still more disruption.

A senior citizen revolt is brewing. ObamaCare relies heavily on cuts to Medicare to "pay for" the new subsidies, and many of those cuts target payments to the privately run Medicare Advantage plans.

These are hugely popular with seniors these days, but the cuts will force millions to switch plans, lose access to doctors they like, or rejoin the balky government-run program. If seniors make the connection, they will only have Democrats to blame.

Unions will probably back repeal. Every major union group has viciously attacked ObamaCare, claiming it will severely harm workers, and some have called for its outright repeal. At the very least, they aren't likely to fight to protect a law they've all come to hate.

It doesn't help the uninsured much, anyway. Even the administration admits that there will still be 30 million uninsured after 10 years of ObamaCare.

Since the official number Obama uses today is 41 million, that's not much of a dent. Plus, ObamaCare could very well increase the number of uninsured if its higher costs convince many to drop their coverage.

Trying to patch it up just makes it worse. The industry warns, for example, that efforts to protect the millions who've had their policies canceled will distort the ObamaCare insurance pool even further, increasing costs next year.

The same holds true for "fixes" that extend the enrollment period or postpone the individual mandate.

Democrats could easily argue for keeping some of the parts of ObamaCare that have already gone into effect, while jettisoning the rest of it. They might, in the process, get Republican buy-in on future reforms.

The chance that enough Democrats will do so is remote.

But as ObamaCare's problems continue to mount, and Obama's popularity plummets, and as realistic solutions seem increasingly impossible, the odds of that happening are only going to get shorter.

See Also

Taxes: Health and Human Services admits it sent nearly a million incorrect tax forms to ObamaCare enrollees. A government that can't even get something simple like this right has no business running health care.The form in question is a new one — Form 1095-A — that goes to anyone who ...

Phony Numbers: The Obama administration says more than 11 million signed up for ObamaCare this year. Should anyone believe this number? Even if it's true, is it a sign of success? The answer to both is a resounding no.In a staged video released on Tuesday, HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell tells ...

Hypocrisy: If ObamaCare is so great, why do Democrats repeatedly try to hide its more unpleasant features? The latest example is their desperate effort to grant still more exemptions to the law's individual mandate.This week, three House Democrats who helped usher ObamaCare through that chamber ...

Crony Socialism: Among ObamaCare's many bad ideas was the attempt to create an entirely new industry of nonprofit insurance co-ops. It is fast turning into a huge, multibillion-dollar taxpayer boondoggle.Created as an alternative to an outright "public option," the co-ops have received $2.5 billion ...

Spending: President Obama almost sounded like a free-market health care reformer during a recent interview. Too bad he can't even imagine letting the private sector fix things.in an interview published this week on Vox.com, Ezra Klein asks Obama why health care costs so much more in the U.S. than ...

Select market data is provided by Interactive Data Corp. Real Time Services. Price and Volume data is delayed 20 minutes unless otherwise noted, is believed accurate but is not warranted or guaranteed by Interactive Data Corp. Real Time Services and is subject to Interactive Data Corp. Real Time Services terms. All times are Eastern United States. *Reflects real-time index prices.